NICFLIC's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[The irRegularGame of Life]

Really nice

I stumbled on this at irregulargames.com by accident, I was actually doing research on fractals and somehow google gave me this. Just a few days before I read the wiki on Conway's Game of Life and it spiked my interest, this game was a really good find.

My one criticism is the boundaries. I don't think the boundaries should exist. Conway's game of life took place on an infinite plane, but yours is bounded. There really would be no way of showing the outside world, but it should exist just the same. At the very least, in the sandbox. (it could screw up game play a little in the game, I get that). Also a counter to keep track of how many cells there are and how many iterations should be included in the sandbox.

Some suggestions for the potential sequel:

Multiple colors based on the immigration variation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%
27s_Game_of_Life#Variations_on_Life).

Two player mode (scroll down a little on that same link)

And not to get too carried away, but obstacles might neat (like permanently alive cells).

Anyways, this was certainly a work of art, the application of a famous computer program (At least famous in the math world). Please, please, PLEASE keep up the good work.

So long, and thanks for all the fish,

-Nick

squidsquid responds:

Hey Nick, thanks for the excellent review and suggestions. You are quite right that this version is bounded, whereas in theory the plane should be infinite. One thing I was considering was making the size of the grid adjustable in the sandbox mode in a future version, which sort of addresses this problem indirectly. Also adding the alive cells and generations counters to the sandbox is a good idea.

My original plan with this was to base the game on something like the immigration variation (I didn't know it was called that then), but I ended up going with this puzzle mode because I wanted to keep things as simple as possible so that players weren't too confused. I also thought about adding permanently alive cells, and also maybe locked areas where you couldn't place starter cells. I've been really surprised and pleased at how popular the game has proven to be, so I'm going to think about adding some of these features/variations to a possible sequel :)

[:the game:]

Re-define: "Game"

Kinda a post-philosophic romp. Devote some time and an open mind to it.

[Mighty Spidy]

Definitely good.

1. I thought it kinda cheesy that you could shoot your web anywhere and not just the solid objects. It would make sense if you web could only stick to the blocks. It would also make game play more challenging.

2. How about different modes, e.g. Level mode (like you already had) and endless/survival mode.

Also the transition between swing spider and walking spider is kinda harsh.